Ticketing

The integration of different operators and modes of transport into the same fare system may remarkably facilitate collective travel by buses and coaches.

Example:PLUSBUS is a recently created UK nation-wide integrated ticketing scheme for bus and train travel. The passenger pays for the entire bus and train journey in one transaction. Although

in its beginnings, during the financial year 2006-07, approximately 77,000 PLUSBUS tickets were sold, which represents an increase of 55% in comparison with the previous year’s figures.

For more information:

IRU Eurochallenge Award 2007 – PLUSBUS

PLUSBUS is a cheap bus pass (like a travelcard) that you buy with your train ticket. It gives you unlimited bus travel around the origin and/or destination town's of your rail journey, including to and from the train station. PLUSBUS serves 276 towns in Britain.Visit www.plusbus.info

Electronic payments range from payments by bank debit, by credit card over mobile phones or by the use of smart cards. They offer passengers more flexibility and a broader choice of paying for their tickets, whilst adapting to a modern “electronic purse lifestyle”.

Example: In Vienna, tickets can be ordered and paid for with a mobile phone. A text message has to be sent to a certain number and the ticket will be sent as a text message back to the mobile phone. The price of the ticket is then included in the monthly mobile phone invoice.

Across the United Kingdom, Stagecoach has introduced the so called “tap and go” technology, which allows passengers to buy their tickets on-board with their bankcards.

Ticket machines located on the street allow passengers to buy their tickets in advance, therefore reducing boarding time which results in a shorter bus journey.

Example: New solar-powered ticket machines were installed in the city of Manchester by Stagecoach and Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. More than 70 on-street ticket machines can also be found on the streets of Brussels.

The introduction of smart cards facilitates payment for passengers and aids in the management of income for operators. Additionally, smart cards generate exact information concerning the travel habits of passengers, which allows customisation of public transport service. Smart cards can also be used for advanced pricing models, where the traveller is charged the cheapest price according to the length of the trip, the time of day or the number of journeys.

Example: The usage of smart cards in Stockholm allows quicker ticket inspection on buses and facilitates the introduction of new fares and types of tickets, which, as a result, encourages new travellers. In Brussels and Bremen, museum, theatre and other service tickets can also be loaded onto smart cards.

For more information:

Sustainable Urban Transport, Final report from the European project Trendsetter, pp. 15-16

ANew Zealand company has launched a mobile smartphone app, “Touch2Pay”, that allows customers to board buses by swiping their phone. Touch2Pay will be usable on Wellington and Auckland buses also to pay for taxis and retailers in the Snapper network, called by . Miki Szikszai, Snapper chief executive, “the magic way to pay for everyday things’.

App users hold the phone - which does not even need to be turned on - up to a reader or payment terminal just as they would any ‘smart’ card. Snapper balances are shown on the phone and can be topped up by credit card. Users can also transfer money from the Snapper account on the smartphone to any Snapper card issued within the past 18 months.

At the time of the launch, the service only worked on Android phones that have Snapper’s contactless payment technology built in. But Szitszai said other compatible smartphones would soon be available on the system. He was confident most major phone companies would join the system in the future. "The industry is starting to think in the same way," he said.

“Touch2Pay Chief Executive Eric Hertz said: "Touch2Pay will make payment faster and easier for people on the go. We have been working non-stop to ensure we are first to market with this new technology.” Hertzs said his customers had been asking for a mobile solution.

“What Snapper customers now have access to is something quite special. The only significant commercial deployments of everyday retail payments including public transport solutions — on a mobile phone have been in places like South Korea and Japan.

“This is not only a first for New Zealand, we haven’t seen anything like this launched on this scale in the Western world".